A judge has allowed a lawsuit filed on behalf of Grace Smith, a Wyoming woman who was arrested and suspended from high school for refusing to comply with a COVID-era mask mandate, to proceed. The case stems from an incident that occurred in 2021 when Smith, a 16-year-old junior at Laramie High School, protested the school’s mask requirement by attending classes without wearing one.
Smith’s decision to refuse the mask mandate led to several disciplinary actions. She was suspended from school three times for her defiance, and on one occasion, she attempted to attend in-person classes without a mask once again. This resulted in her arrest for trespassing. Her father, Andy Smith, accompanied her to school during the arrest and recorded the incident, which he later shared online, drawing attention to the situation.
Following the arrest, Smith withdrew from Laramie High School. Her parents, acting on her behalf, filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming that Smith’s First Amendment rights had been violated and that the school’s actions amounted to retaliation for her refusal to comply with the mask mandate.
Initially, in 2023, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal dismissed the case, ruling that Smith did not have standing to sue. The judge argued that Smith could not demonstrate that the harm she suffered was not self-inflicted, as she had chosen not to follow the mandate.
However, Smith’s parents appealed the decision, and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in their favor. In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel found that Smith did, in fact, have standing to bring the case forward. The judges noted that when a government regulation requires or forbids an action by a plaintiff, it almost always establishes an injury in fact.
The judges concluded that Smith had suffered an injury because she had been repeatedly punished by the school for opposing the mask mandate. The school had suspended her multiple times, and law enforcement had been involved in issuing trespassing citations, arresting her, and taking her to jail. These actions, the judges determined, directly resulted from the school’s enforcement of the mask mandate, and Smith had the right to challenge them in court.
The judges also addressed the school’s argument that Smith could have avoided the harm by simply complying with the mandate. They rejected this reasoning, explaining that the focus of the case was on Smith’s right to oppose the mandate, not on whether compliance could have prevented the consequences.
The decision allows the case to move forward in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, where further proceedings will take place. The appeals court emphasized that its ruling was focused solely on whether Smith had standing to pursue the case, not on the merits of the claims themselves. The judges made it clear that they were not addressing the constitutionality of the mask mandate, but were instead concerned with the legality of the actions taken against Smith by the school.
The ruling represents a significant step in the legal battle over the enforcement of pandemic-related restrictions and the rights of individuals who opposed such measures. It underscores the ongoing legal challenges faced by school districts and other institutions that implemented strict COVID-19 mandates.
